1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a process for treating textile fibers and an apparatus for carrying out the process.
2. Technical Considerations and Prior Art
For certain treatments of textile fibers, one uses either chambers of large size, which are bulky and require constant maintenance, or devices which are in contact with the yarns which increase in size with the length of the treatment time of the yarn.
The treatment performed in contact with a surface, which is generally hot, has two main disadvantages. Firstly, there is friction between the stretched yarn and the device (which may be, for example, a heating drum or a heating plate). Secondly, there is non-uniformity of the treatment of the yarn at any one instant, because only one face of the yarn is in contact with the device; the other face being in the surrounding atmosphere.
Prior art approaches which may be of interest, and over which the instant invention distinguishes, include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,393,661; 3,422,796 and 3,511,730 and French Pat. No. 1,357,993.